Tag: The Smudger

Last month saw the release of The Smudger, The Memory Trader book 1, and March has seen the completion of its sequel, The Sister, the first round of edits completed, and the book sent out to beta readers .

I can’t believe how quickly these books have come about. It was one of my goals for the year, to increase my writing speed, to produce more books, but I’m totally awed by how fast it’s happened.

And I’m not slowing up. I’m already plotting my next book, and I’m signed up to Camp NaNoWriMo with a 25k wordcount goal to make a start on writing it next month.

I love being so busy, so crazy busy, so in the zone. It is tiring, and I need to remind myself to slow down now and again (although the flu forced me to for a couple of weeks earlier this month). But I’m excited, and I’m gonna make the most of that feeling.

I can hardly believe that we’re only two months into the year; 2018 has been crazy busy, and crazy productive too.

On Tuesday, the ebook version of The Smudger, the first book of my Memory Trader series, is released (the paperback is already available) across Amazon and other retailers. This will mark the first release of 2018, and the first of a dizzying planned publishing schedule for the year.

The Memory Trader series has come about in something of a whirlwind. I spent a full month developing the world and the story, before writing The Smudger as part of NaNoWriMo last November. It was edited, beta read, and edited again over just two months before the paperback was published at the end of January. And it’s follow-up, The Sister, is on an equal pegging speed-wise. I started writing it on February 1st, and the wordcount is currently pushing rapidly towards 40k.

It’s been so easy to write, with the story simply flowing out of me. I’m so excited about this world, about the characters that inhabit it, about the stories they have to tell. I wish I knew why, I wish I had discovered some amazing secret method of writing, but all I can say is that it was just the right book at the right time for me. If only I got bottle this somehow, and drink it on the days the words come like blood from a stone.

So, overall, February has been a great month, just like January was. I’m really looking forward to seeing what March will bring…!

So much has already happened, and we’re not even a full month into 2018 yet. It’s definitely setting up to be a crazy busy year!

I’m currently on track with my goals for the year, with The Smudger already up for pre order on Amazon and other retailers, ready to release on 27th February. It’s still more than a month before its release, but it’s already garnered some fantastic reviews from early readers over on Goodreads. I’ve got some exciting plans to really boost its release, and it really feels like I know what I’m doing this time, like I’m not just fudging it as I go. I like that feeling.

The plotting is going well for book 2, although a little slower than I would like. But I’m just impatient to get started on writing it. These books, the characters, the world, I’m just so excited about them. I want to dive into the story again.

Today, three days earlier than I expected, I received the paperback proof of The Smudger, and it is a truly beautiful thing. It’s so sad that all the fonts get lost in the ebook, because the paperback is stunning both inside and out. That’s why I’m a lover of hard copies, of actual books. The spine and the back of the book are gorgeous too, and you lose it all with an electronic copy. So, all in all, January has turned out pretty great.

Last year saw the completion of my set goal: to write and release the full Paper Duchess series of books. So what now?

2018 has arrived with a whole head full of ideas and plans and goals. In fact, it’s more than one head’s worth. They’re pretty much pouring out of my ears! And every time I think I’ve fitted them into my schedule for the year (yes, I’ve actually scheduled the entire year!), up pops another idea. It’s starting to get pretty crazy! So, I guess it’s time to get started…

First up this year will be the release of The Smudger, the first book in The Memory Trader series. That means new stories, new characters, and an entire new world to explore. The book is currently out with beta readers and should be ready for a late February release.

After that, it’s book 2 of the series, currently titled The Scratch, with a proposed release date of late April. It’s gonna be hectic, but I think I can do it. These books are proving so much fun to write, and I’m totally in love with the characters and the world they inhabit, so that makes things a lot easier.

Next in the schedule is a project I’m not ready to talk about yet. I’m hoping to launch it in the summer, so you’ll have to wait a bit to hear more about that.

The end of the summer will hopefully see another book release, a full-length novel set in the same world as my book After: A Post Apocalyptic Story Collection. Its working title is When They Returned, but that’s definitely going to change (because, frankly, it’s rubbish!)

I’ll be wrapping up the year with a book that’s been rattling around my head for over a year now. It keeps getting pushed back and pushed back as other projects come to the fore. It’s a standalone book, so it’s become something of a forgotten child. It will be called The Notary of Gotliss Street, and is planned for an early December release.

There you have it: my crazy busy 2018. Of course, somewhere in all this I still have to eat, sleep, oh yeah, and be Mummy to my two boys!

I love looking back over the past year, especially if I can be pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve achieved! (More often than not it’s regret over another year that failed to meet its potential.) But this year, I really feel like I’ve had a shift. I really feel like I’ve stopped thinking like a hobbyist, and started thinking like a business woman. My mindset has totally changed.

It was a bit crazy doing two book releases in such quick succession, and I feel like I’ve learnt an important lesson from that. It did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped, but that lesson has led on to exciting plans for 2018.

Fast forward to July, and I was at Edge-Lit literary convention. While I was there, I attended a workshop on running literary events, and this sparked a whole heap of ideas I plan to implement next year. It also prompted me to approach the organiser of Edge-Lit with a workshop pitch.

October saw the release of The Mothers, the 4th and final book in The Paper Duchess series. I had officially completed an entire series of books which was quite monumental.

Again, I’ve learnt a lot of lessons through the two years I’ve been writing and publishing the series (which you can read about here), and it’s already making the writing of my next series so much easier in a lot of ways. You see; mistakes are never just mistakes if you learn from them. And lessons are valuable, and something to cherish.

November proved to be a ridiculously busy month. I decided to give NaNoWriMo another shot. This was my 7th year doing it, and I had 3 wins and 3 horrendous losses under my belt. I hadn’t come anywhere close to completing it since having children.

But I felt determined this year. I spent all of October planning, and I put my success down to that. I stormed in at just over 51,000 words by the end of the month. And a very nearly completed novel draft (which is now completed).

November also brought around Sledge-Lit, the Christmas edition of Edge-Lit literary convention. Remember that workshop pitch? This was my first ever time as a guest author, and my first ever time on a discussion panel. I also ran a very successful worldbuilding workshop which I’ve had amazing feedback from. You can read more about my Sledge-Lit experience here.

As if that wasn’t enough for one month, I also put together and released The Paper Duchess Complete Series Box Set. This was not nearly as easy as I’d anticipated, and I spent days fiddling around with the coding and the format to get everything working properly.

But, I did it, and people can now get the entire series in just one file. Phew! What a year!

2017 has also seen a lot more going on, both on and off stage: promos, newsletters, giveaways, author takeovers, secret plans, upping my social media game, bettering book delivery, having a short story accepted for an anthology, and I could go on forever. It’s been so busy. And December isn’t going to let up either.

December has already seen the completion of my next book’s first draft, The Smudger, which was mostly done in NaNoWriMo. As long as editing stays on track, I’ll be sending it out to my beta readers before Christmas. And that means I can spend the festive period with my feet up (at least, as much as a mum can!)

I’ll see you in the new year to talk about my plans for 2018 (the non-secret ones, at least!)

This post was written as part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop. If you want to visit the other IWSG member blogs, or sign up yourself, you can do so here.

June has not been a bad month at all, writing-wise. As for real life, it’s been nothing short of turbulent. And it’s that reason that I’m not as far forward in my writing of The Mothers as I would have liked. But, real life happens, and sometimes, we have no choice but to make room for it.

But I’m moving forward, slowly but surely, and the first draft is about a quarter written now.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my next series, for after I publish The Mothers, and I’ve had a good chat with my alpha reader, my husband. We came up with some great ideas, which has added in things that are going to be great fun to play with. I’m feeling much more sure of that now, and it’s nice to know where I’m heading after I finish The Paper Duchess series.

So, yeah, it’s just a case of carrying on, really. And hoping for a calm, quiet July with lots of writing time.